BLUE JACKETS 5 BLACKHAWKS 4
Jackets show a bit of life
Second-period goal flurry snaps tie on way to win
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Michael Arace
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
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CHICAGO ? There they are. The Blue Jackets reappeared last night and posted an intermittently impressive, intermittently gritty 5-4 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks in the United Center. It was the Jackets? first road game of the new season.
Rick Nash had two goals, Manny Malhotra had a goal and an assist and David Vyborny two assists. Jaroslav Balastik and Duvie Westcott each had a goal. Four other Jackets players picked up assists.
For the Blackhawks, defensemen Adrian Aucoin and Jeff Hamilton had first-period goals and Patrick Sharp and Martin Havlat scored in the third to lend some drama.
"We took three penalties in a row there at the end," Blue Jackets coach Gerard Gallant said. "That?s going to wear you out. You just can?t do that. But overall the guys played a real solid game. It was fun to see them working hard and competing, because they were embarrassed (Friday) night."
The Blue Jackets blew a 2-0 lead in the third period and lost their season opener 3-2 in overtime to the Vancouver Canucks in Nationwide Arena. The Jackets flew to Chicago and faced another challenge. The rebuilt Blackhawks went 7-1 during the exhibition season and beat the powerful Predators 8-6 in their season opener in Nashville on Thursday night.
The Blackhawks picked right up again last night ? and scored on their first two shots. Then, a funny thing happened. The Blue Jackets got their legs going. They didn?t allow the Chicago a shot from 7:16 of the first period, when Hamilton scored, until 19:35. In the meantime, the Jackets got very busy in the Blackhawks? end. All it took was a couple of good shifts and a few Chicago penalties to turn the momentum.
"I started getting cold back there," goaltender Pascal Leclaire said. "But it was fun to watch."
The Jackets wound up with 13 shots and two power-play goals in the period. Nash had one on a swoop-in put-back. Balastik had the other on a similar putback. At the end of the period, the score was 2-2. and at that point the Jackets were 4 of 8 with the man advantage through the first 80:31 of their season.
It was in the second period, when the Blue Jackets scored three goals in a span of 2:44, that one could get a sense of how scary they can be. The Jackets played to their strength ? their big, talented forwards ? and dominated. They did the work on the walls that they failed to do in their season opener.
Bang, bang, bang. Dan Fritsche forced a turnover deep in the Chicago zone, Adam Foote sent a shot/pass down the slot and Malhotra was there to deposit a rebound. Vyborny picked a pocket at the blue line, sent a pass down the slot to Nash, who deposited a quick shot over Nikolai Khabibulin?s glove and snapped the water bottle. In another quick turnaround, Westcott pinched deep and deftly banked a hard-angle rebound off Khabibulin?s pad and into the net.
"Turnovers," said Chicago coach Trent Yawney, making the word sound like an epithet.
That was one goal with the man advantage, one at five-on-five and one four-on-four. The Blue Jackets had a 5-2 lead, and it didn?t appear that Leclaire was about to let it slip away.
"We showed we had some firepower up front," Nash said. "We were down early, came back and showed some character. There?s a lot of work left to do, but that?s two good points on the road."
Successive penalties to Vyborny, Anson Carter and Ron Hainsey sapped the Jackets? energy as the third period wore on. Chicago scored twice in a span of 23 seconds to cut the lead to one goal with four minutes remaining. Then, the Blackhawks ran out of time.
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